Atlasing and virtual surfaces

ABSTRACT

Atlasing and virtual surface techniques are described. In one or more implementations, virtual surface functionality is exposed by an operating system for access by one or more applications of the computing device. A virtual surface is created in response to a request from the one or more applications to be used to render visuals for display by a display device. The virtual surface is allocated in memory of the computing device by the exposed virtual surface functionality to have an area that is larger than an area to be used to display the visuals from the one or more applications.

BACKGROUND

The variety of computing device configurations continues to increase.From traditional desktop personal computers to mobile phones, gameconsoles, set-top boxes, tablet computers, and so on, the functionalityavailable from each of these configurations may vary greatly.

Consequently, traditional display techniques that were developed for oneconfiguration may not be as well suited for another configuration. Forexample, display techniques that were previously utilized for deviceshaving significant memory resources may be ill-suited for devices havingfewer resources.

SUMMARY

Atlasing and virtual surface techniques are described. In one or moreimplementations, virtual surface functionality is exposed by anoperating system for access by one or more applications of the computingdevice. A virtual surface is created in response to a request from theone or more applications to be used to render visuals for display by adisplay device. The virtual surface is allocated in memory of thecomputing device by the exposed virtual surface functionality to have anarea that is larger than an area to be used to display the visuals fromthe one or more applications.

In one or more implementations, a computing device comprises one or moremodules implemented at least partially in hardware and configured toimplement an operating system to expose one or more applicationsprogramming interfaces for access by one or more applications to updatevisuals to be rendered for display by a display device. The applicationprogramming interfaces (APIs) include a begin draw applicationprogramming interface (API) that is configured to accept a size andoffset of a portion of a logical surface that is to be updated and asuspend draw application programming interface (API) that is configuredto suspend an update that is to be performed for the portion of thelogical surface. The application programming interfaces (APIs) alsoinclude a resume draw application programming interface (API) that isconfigured to access the portion of the logical surface from a suspendedstate to continue an update and an end draw application programminginterface (API) that is configured to indicate an end of the update tothe operating system.

In one or more implementations, one or more computer-readable storagemedia comprising instructions stored thereon that, responsive toexecution by a computing device, causes the computing device toimplement an operating system that comprises an allocator moduleconfigured to manage distribution and positioning of logical surfacesinside of an atlas, each the logical surfaces configured to include oneor visuals received from an application for rendering, and an updatemanager module to manage allocation and reconciliation of updates,received from the application, with a surface allocation to be renderedfor display by a display device.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subjectmatter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description is described with reference to the accompanyingfigures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference numberidentifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. Theuse of the same reference numbers in different instances in thedescription and the figures may indicate similar or identical items.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an environment in an example implementationthat is operable to perform atlasing and virtual surface techniquesdescribed herein.

FIG. 2 depicts an example embodiment showing objects and correspondingrelationships that may be managed by an allocator module of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 depicts a flow chart that illustrates an example of the differentpaths a developer of the application may attempt to access APIs andwhich paths are or are not supported by a composition module of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 depicts an example implementation in which a virtual surface isresized.

FIG. 5 depicts an example implementation in which interaction betweenapplications and logical surfaces of a virtual surface is shown.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram depicting a procedure in an exampleimplementation in which virtual surface functionality is exposed by anoperating system for access by one or more applications.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example system that includes the computing deviceas described with reference to FIG. 1.

FIG. 8 illustrates various components of an example device that can beimplemented as any type of computing device as described with referenceto FIGS. 1 and 7 to implement embodiments of the techniques describedherein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

Applications traditionally created windowless swap chains that involveda front and back buffer that was associated with each visual, whichcould result in an inefficient use of resources of a computing devicewhen used alone. For example, an application using these traditionaltechniques may utilize six different buffers (e.g., texture videomemory) to update three different visuals. This inefficiency could beexacerbated in scenarios that could involve significant numbers ofvisuals that are to animate at once or in response to a user input suchas a tile deletion, panning, or zooming scenario. In such scenarios, astart-up cost in terms of computing device resources to create theshared surfaces plus the swap chains may become prohibitive as thenumber of elements to be animated increases. This could result in slowor delayed animation and lags in response time for the end user.

Atlasing and virtual surface techniques are described herein. In one ormore implementations, these techniques may be used to reduce resourceusage of a computing device to render visuals. For example, thesetechniques may be used to reduce memory consumption as well as a numberof surfaces created for an application to achieve an animation andcomposition scenario, which may be accomplished through atlasing. Thesetechniques may also be used to enable applications to break surfaces ofcontent into tiles and render the tiles ahead of time, which may beaccomplished through use of virtual surfaces. Further discussion ofatlasing and virtual surfaces may be found in relation to the followingsections.

In the following discussion, an example environment is first describedthat is operable to perform the atlasing and virtual surface techniquesdescribed herein. Examples procedures are then described, which areoperable in the example environment as well as in other environments.Likewise, the example environment is not limited to performance of theexample procedures.

Example Environment

FIG. 1 illustrates an operating environment in accordance with one ormore embodiments, generally at 100. Environment 100 includes a computingdevice 102 having a processing system 104 that may include one or moreprocessors, an example of computer-readable storage media illustrated asmemory 106, an operating system 108, and one or more applications 110.Computing device 102 can be embodied as any suitable computing devicesuch as, by way of example and not limitation, a desktop computer, aportable computer, a handheld computer such as a personal digitalassistant (PDA), mobile phone, tablet computer, and the like. Differentexamples of a computing device 102 is shown and described below in FIGS.7 and 8.

The computing device 102 also includes an operating system 108 that isillustrated as being executed on the processing system 104 and isstorable in memory 106. The computing device 102 further includesapplications 110 that are illustrated as being stored in the memory 106and are also executable on the processing system 104. The operatingsystem 108 is representative of functionality of the computing device102 that may abstract underlying hardware and software resources for useby the applications 110. For example, the operating system 108 mayabstract functionality of how data is displayed on the display device112 without the applications 110 having to “know” how this display isachieved. A variety of other examples are also contemplated, such as toabstract the processing system 104 and memory 106 resources of thecomputing device 102, network resources, and so on.

The computing device 102 is also illustrated as including a compositionmodule 114. Although illustrated as part of the operating system 108,the composition module 114 may be implemented in a variety of ways, suchas a stand-alone module, as a separate application, as part of hardwareof the computing device 102 itself (e.g., a SOC or ASIC), and so on. Thecomposition module 114 may employ a variety of techniques to rendervisuals, such as to expose functionality via one or more applicationprogramming interfaces (APIs) 116 for use by the applications 110 torender visuals.

For example, one such technique may be based on an object called a swapchain, which may leverage an array of buffers representing a bitmap. Oneof the buffers, for instance, may be used to present data on the displaydevice 112 at any one time and therefore may be called the “onscreenbuffer” or “front buffer.” The other buffers are made available to anapplication 110 for rasterization off screen and therefore may bereferred to as an “off-screen buffer” or “back buffer.”

An application 110 may make a change to what is displayed on the displaydevice 112 in a variety of ways. In a first such technique, theapplication 110 can redraw one of the back buffers and “flip” thecontents, such as by making one of the off-screen buffers the onscreenbuffer using a pointer and vice versa.

In a second such technique, buffers of different sizes may also beleveraged. For example, the composition module 114 may leverage a firstbuffer as an onscreen buffer. The composition module 114 may alsoleverage a second buffer that is smaller than the first buffer as anoff-screen buffer. Therefore, when an update is to be made to thecontent, the update may be rasterized to the second buffer. The updatemay then be copied to the onscreen buffer, e.g., using a blt. In thisway, resources of the computing device 102 may be conserved.

The composition module 114 may also be configured to support atlasingand virtual surface techniques. These techniques may be used to assistdevelopers of the applications 110 to reduce resources of the computingdevice 102 that are used to render visuals. This may include atlasing,which may be used to reduce memory 106 consumption, e.g., by decreasinga number of surfaces created for the application 110 to achieve ananimation and composition scenario. This may also include use of virtualsurfaces, thereby enabling applications 110 to break a surface of visualdata into tiles and then render the tiles ahead of time.

Atlasing may be implemented using a variety of functionality,illustrated examples of which include an allocator module 118, a virtualsurface 120 having one or more logical surfaces 122, and an updatemanager module 124. The allocator module 118 is representative offunctionality to act as an “atlas packing mechanism” to manage thedistribution and positioning of logical surfaces 122 inside of an atlas,including memory 106 compaction and reuse, as well as the creation anddestruction of additional atlas surfaces as desired.

A virtual surface may be configured as a collection of one or morelogical surfaces 122. The logical surface 122 is representative of anindividual surface as seen by the application 110 and may be associatedwith one or more visuals. The logical surface 122, for instance, may beconfigured as tiles having a fixed size and a plurality of which may bearranged in a fixed grid, although it should be readily apparent that avariety of other instances are also contemplated.

A virtual surface 120 may be built on top of one or more physical atlassurfaces. Additionally, the virtual surface may be used to represent anarea that is larger than an area represented by a texture. For example,the application 110 may specify a size of a virtual texture at creationtime. The size establishes the boundaries for the virtual surface. Thesurface can be associated with one or multiple visuals. In one or moreimplementations, when a virtual surface is first initialized, it is notbacked by actual allocations. In other words, the virtual surface 120may not “hold bits” upon initialization but may do so at a later pointin time.

The update manager module 124 is representative of functionality of thecomposition module 114 to manage allocation of update regions andreconciliation of updates with a final surface allocation. The updatemanager module 124, for instance, may be employed to perform synchronousas well as asynchronous updates, further discussion of which may befound in relation to the following figures.

Generally, any of the functions described herein can be implementedusing software, firmware, hardware (e.g., fixed logic circuitry), or acombination of these implementations. The terms “module,”“functionality,” and “logic” as used herein generally representsoftware, firmware, hardware, or a combination thereof. In the case of asoftware implementation, the module, functionality, or logic representsprogram code that performs specified tasks when executed on a processor(e.g., CPU or CPUs). The program code can be stored in one or morecomputer readable memory devices. The features of the atlasing andvirtual surface techniques described below are platform-independent,meaning that the techniques may be implemented on a variety ofcommercial computing platforms having a variety of processors.

For example, the computing device 102 may also include an entity (e.g.,software) that causes hardware of the computing device 102 to performoperations, e.g., processors, functional blocks, and so on. For example,the computing device 102 may include a computer-readable medium that maybe configured to maintain instructions that cause the computing device,and more particularly hardware of the computing device 102 to performoperations. Thus, the instructions function to configure the hardware toperform the operations and in this way result in transformation of thehardware to perform functions. The instructions may be provided by thecomputer-readable medium to the computing device 102 through a varietyof different configurations.

One such configuration of a computer-readable medium is signal bearingmedium and thus is configured to transmit the instructions (e.g., as acarrier wave) to the hardware of the computing device, such as via anetwork. The computer-readable medium may also be configured as acomputer-readable storage medium and thus is not a signal bearingmedium. Examples of a computer-readable storage medium include arandom-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), an optical disc,flash memory, hard disk memory, and other memory devices that may usemagnetic, optical, and other techniques to store instructions and otherdata.

In the following discussion, a visual may refer to a basic compositionelement. For example, a visual may contain a bitmap and associatedcompositional metadata for processing by the composition module 114. Avisual's bitmap can be associated with a swap chain (e.g., for dynamiccontent such as video) or an atlas surface (e.g., for semi-dynamiccontent). The two presentation models may be supported in a singlevisual tree that is supported by the composition module 114.

For semi-dynamic content, an atlas serves as the updating model for thevisual's bitmap and may refer to an aggregate layer which may include aplurality of layers to be rendered, although a single layer is alsocontemplated. The visual and its property manipulations (e.g. offset,transform, effect, and so on) as well as the methods to update thevisual's atlas-based-bitmaps (BeginDraw, SuspendDraw, ResumDraw,EndDraw) are exposed via application programming interfaces, whereas theatlas layer size, tiles size, packing/compaction/management of bitmapupdates is completely hidden from the application. This guarantees wecan make the appropriate tradeoffs to rich better performance.

A swap chain refers to a series of buffers that may “flip” to the screenon after another, such as by changing pointers. Accordingly, a flip modeis a mode by which a swap chain technique is used to make an off-screenbuffer an onscreen buffer, e.g., through the use of swapping pointsbetween the off-screen and onscreen buffers. However, a blt mode refersto a technique in which a runtime of the composition module 114 issues a“blt” (e.g., bit block image transfer) from an off-screen buffer to anonscreen buffer, which may be used to update the onscreen buffer. Anexample implementation using these terms is now discussed.

Allocator Module 118

FIG. 2 depicts an example embodiment 200 showing objects andcorresponding relationships that may be managed by the allocator module118 of FIG. 1. The allocator module 118 may be configured to provide avariety of management functionality as described earlier. For example,the allocator module 118 may be configured to manage four sets ofobjects for an atlas 202. One such set of objects is a dynamic block204, which may be defined as a rectangle in an atlas surface 202 and maymap “one-to-one” to a logical surface 122. It should be readily apparentthat a wide variety of other shapes for the portion defined by thedynamic block 204 are also contemplated.

Another set of objects involves a dynamic row 206, which may be definedas a horizontal slice of an atlas 202. In one or more implementations,the dynamic row 206 may be configured to contain one or more dynamicblocks 204 of the same height but may have the same or different widths.Naturally, other implementations are also contemplated in whichdifferent heights and the same widths are also contemplated, differentheights and widths, and so on.

A further set of objects is illustrated as a dynamic bucket 208. In oneor more implementations, the dynamic bucket 208 may refer to acollection of dynamic rows 206 having a matching height. Again, otherimplementations are also contemplated in which different heights mayalso be addressed.

Yet another set of objects refers to a dynamic pool 210. In one or moreimplementations, a dynamic pool 210 may refer to a collection of dynamicbuckets 208 and map “one-to-one” to an atlas 202 surface. Again, otherimplementations are also contemplated.

In one or more examples, the allocator module 118 may be configured tobreak up the atlas 202 into rows, which may be further broken down intoblocks. Accordingly, in this example the blocks in a row have a matchingheight, which may be used to facilitate compaction and reuse of thememory 106. Additionally, multiple rows having a matching height may beefficiently managed together, e.g., as it may be efficient to managecompaction across similar rows.

The allocator module 118 may perform a variety of functions, includingallocation, de-allocation, and compaction. In regards to allocation,when a logical surface 122 is created, the allocator module 118 maylocate an appropriate dynamic row 206 that “has room” for thecorresponding dynamic block 204. Once located, the allocator module 118may mark the memory 106 as “in use.” If a dynamic row 206 is notavailable, the allocator module 118 may attempt to create a new dynamicrow 206 in an existing atlas 202. If there is not enough space in theexisting atlas 202, the allocator module 118 may attempt to create a newatlas.

Regarding de-allocation, when a logical surface 122 is deleted, theallocator module 118 may marks respective portions of the memory 106 asreclaimable. However, reclamation of this portion of memory 106 may waituntil later, e.g., until memory 106 is desired for use in re-allocation.

Regarding compaction, when there is insufficient space in the memory 106for a logical surface 122 allocation, the allocator module 118 mayattempt to “compact” current usage of the memory 106. For example, theallocator module 118 may attempt to reclaim unused memory 106 and moveexisting allocations around (e.g., to different addresses in the memory)in an attempt to free up enough contiguous memory to satisfy the newallocation before allocating a new row or a new atlas.

Logical Surface 122 Management

The composition module 114 may expose an object (e.g.,“IDCompositionSurface”) as a logical representation of a region on aphysical atlas surface. The composition module 114 may also expose APIs116 that are accessible for the application 110 to create, update, anddelete these logical surfaces. Each surface may be associated with oneor more visuals.

FIG. 3 depicts a flow chart 300 that illustrates an example of thedifferent paths a developer of the application 110 may attempt to accessAPIs and which paths are or are not supported by the composition module114. Illustrated operations exposed via respective APIs include begindraw 302, suspend draw 304, resume draw 306, and end draw 308. Supportedpaths are illustrated through the use of solid lines in the figure andpaths that are not support are illustrated using dashed lines in thefigure.

An application 110, for instance, may update a logical surface 122 bycalling begin draw 302 and by passing a size and offset of a rectangleon the logical surface that is to be updated. The composition system 114may then allocate and enforce a rectangle of the specified size on thephysical atlas and return the atlas surface and the corresponding offsetto be used to draw/update to the calling application 110.

More than one pending update may be involved with the application 110.In one or more implementations, to support this scenario the application110 calls suspend draw 304 on a first surface. This is performed beforecalling begin draw 302 for a second surface or resume draw 306, e.g., togo back to a suspended surface. End draw 308, as the name implies,refers to an end of the update. In one or more implementations, suspenddraw 304 is not used to present or discard the content, rather the enddraw 308 operation is used through calling the respective API.

Update Manager Module 124

The update manager module 124 of the composition module 114 may make alogical distinction between two types of atlases, e.g., an update atlasand a texturing atlas. The update atlas may be used as a scratchsurface, e.g., a surface returned to the application 110 when begin draw302 or resume draw 306 is called to make updates. A texturing atlas, onthe other hand, is an atlas from which the composition module 114 mayapply textures.

The update manager module 124 of the composition module 114 may processupdates using a variety of different techniques. This may be determinedby the update module 124, for instance, by using heuristics. Examples ofsuch techniques include synchronous updates and asynchronous updates asdescribed below.

Synchronous Updates

In this model, changes made to an update atlas are copied to a texturingatlas (e.g., using a blt operation) for consumption by the compositionmodule 114. The copy may be initiated responsive to a call made to“commit” by the application 110. When the application 110 is donegenerating the update, the application 110 may call “commit.” Inresponse, the composition module 114 may execute a series of copyoperations (e.g., blt's) to copy updated content from the update atlasto the texturing atlas. The composition module 114 may also issue a“present” call at the time of commit to synchronize bitmap updates withvisual changes, i.e., transactional synchronization.

Asynchronous Updates

In this model, the composition module 114 may maintain a hybrid atlasthat includes both an update and texture surface. Additionally, theapplication 110 and the composition module 114 may have read/writeaccess to different regions of the surface at the same time. Thecomposition module 114 may manage the state of this hybrid atlas, e.g.,to ensure an updatable region is not a potential source for texturing.

There are a variety of different scenarios for which an asynchronousupdate may be used. One such scenario involves whether an update affectsa totality of a logical surface area. In this case, the compositionmodule 114 may give the application 110 a new logical surface on thetexturing atlas such that the update may be made directly to thetexturing surface without using a copy operation, e.g., a blt.

Another such scenario involves whether an update affects a majority of alogical surface. For example, the majority may be defined as more thantwo thirds of an area of a logical surface 122. In this case, thecomposition module 114 may allocate a new logical surface on a texturingatlas and return to the application 110 a portion (e.g., sub-rectangle)of the new surface that is to be used to make updates. In addition, thecomposition module 114 may execute a copy operation (e.g., blt) to copyover unchanged areas from the old surface to the new one.

A further such scenario involves whether an update affects a minor partof a logical surface. In this case, a copy operation (e.g., blt) may beissued except that the portion (e.g., sub-rectangle) returned to theapplication 110 may be on the same texturing surface, e.g., depending ona cost of same-surface copy operations.

Virtual Surface 120

As previously described, when a virtual surface 120 is first initializedin one or more implementations, it is not backed by actual allocations.In other words, it does not “hold any bits.” The composition module 114may perform allocation of tiles (i.e., composition surface objects) oncethe application 110 starts updating the surface. Similar to atlasing,the application 110 can update the virtual surface 120 via the begindraw 302, suspend draw 304, resume draw 306, and end draw 308 API callsto respective operations. The mapping may be determined by an internalatlasing algorithm of the composition module 114 and is not made visibleto the application 110 in one or more implementations.

Additionally, the composition module 114 may expose functionality viaAPIs 116 to enable applications 110 to resize and trim a virtual surface120. For example, a resize operation may be used to change theboundaries of the virtual surface 120. This means that new updatesand/or allocations are to fall within the boundaries set by the newsize. The application 110 may also use this method to inform thecomposition module 114 that a certain region of the virtual surface 120is no longer being utilized and thus is available for reclamation. Ifthe resize results in shrinking the area, the application 110 is nolonger be able to make updates to the regions outside of the newboundaries through management by the composition module 114.

FIG. 4 depicts an example implementation 400 in which a virtual surfaceis resized. In the illustrated example, first and second stages 402, 404are used to show that a 3×3 virtual surface is resized to 2×2,respectively. The regions that contain cross-hatching in the secondstage 404 represent tiles that are to be discarded as part of the resizeoperation. As mentioned before, the memory 106 used to store these tilesmay then be reclaimed by the composition module 114. After the resize,the application 110 will no longer be able to make updates to thediscarded region (i.e., the cross-hatched region) without first resizingthe virtual surface again.

Additionally, the resize operation may be initiated by the compositionmodule 114 in response to receipt of indication of the operation in oneor more implementations. For example, the composition module 114 mayimplement resize updates upon receipt of the indication without waitingfor the application to call “commit.” For example, an application maycall “Resize(0, 0),” “Resize(INT_MAX, INT_MAX),” and “Commit( )” In thisexample, the application 110 has caused the content to be discarded onthe first resize, so the second resize does not have an effect eventhough it was called before “Commit( )” In this case, the display device112 does not display content as none is available for display.

A trim operation may be used to describe a region of a virtual atlas 120to the composition module 114 that is requested by the application 110.Thus, the trim operation may be performed without resizing boundaries ofthe virtual surface 120. However, it does tell the composition engine114 which logical surfaces are to be allocated at present, an example ofwhich is described in relation to the following figure.

FIG. 5 depicts an example implementation 500 in which interactionbetween an applications and logical surfaces of a virtual surface isshown. This example is also illustrated through use of first and secondstages 502, 504. In this example, an application's viewport 506 is shownin both the first and second stages 502, 504. Accordingly, at the firststage 502 the application initially renders to the first 6 tiles of thevirtual surface (that includes 15 tiles) that are within the viewport506, which are shown through cross-hatching.

As a page that is represented by the virtual surface is scrolled, theapplication may now cause the last six tiles to be rendered as shown inthe second stage 504. Accordingly, the application 110 may call “trim”to indicate that the region defined by the last six tiles is currentlybeing used and thus the rest of the content is not currently beingutilized. The composition module 114 may then choose to recycle thelogical surfaces 506 that originally represented the first 6 tiles.

As described above, the composition module 114 may support a variety offunctionality. For example, an atlasing implementation may be hiddenfrom the application 110 by the composition module 114 which may be usedto ensure that the application 110 is to consume less than two times thesurface memory for each visual.

The composition module 114 manages the allocator module 118 to performatlas packing and surface allocation and de-allocation. The application110 may also specify whether a visual is associated with a swap chain(e.g., for dynamic content such as video) or an atlas surface (e.g., forsemi-dynamic content). The two presentation models may be supported in asingle visual tree that is supported by the composition module 114.

The composition module 114 may also expose APIs 116 to create and deletelogical (i.e., physical) and virtual surfaces as well as to make updatesto the individual surfaces. The composition module 114 may enforce theregion to be updated by the application 110 to avoid extraneous visualswhen drawing outside of an updatable area.

Example Procedures

The following discussion describes techniques that may be implementedutilizing the previously described systems and devices. Aspects of eachof the procedures may be implemented in hardware, firmware, or software,or a combination thereof. The procedures are shown as a set of blocksthat specify operations performed by one or more devices and are notnecessarily limited to the orders shown for performing the operations bythe respective blocks. In portions of the following discussion,reference will be made to the environment 100 of FIG. 1 and the systemsand example implementations of FIGS. 2-5.

FIG. 6 depicts a procedure 600 in an example implementation in whichvirtual surface functionality is exposed by an operating system foraccess by one or more applications. A virtual surface is created inresponse to a request from the one or more applications to be used torender visuals for display by a display device (block 602). Thecomposition module 114, for instance, may receive a request via an APIto render a texture.

The virtual surface is allocated in memory of the computing device bythe exposed virtual surface functionality to have an area that is largerthan an area to be used to display the visuals from the one or moreapplications (block 604). As shown in FIG. 5, for instance, an area tobe displayed which is represented by the viewport 506 may be smallerthan an area of the virtual surface, which is represented by a pluralityof logical surfaces configured as having matching sizes and arranged ina fixed grid in this example. Naturally, other examples are alsocontemplated.

Example System and Device

FIG. 7 illustrates an example system 700 that includes the computingdevice 102 as described with reference to FIG. 1. The example system 700enables ubiquitous environments for a seamless user experience whenrunning applications on a personal computer (PC), a television device,and/or a mobile device. Services and applications run substantiallysimilar in all three environments for a common user experience whentransitioning from one device to the next while utilizing anapplication, playing a video game, watching a video, and so on.

In the example system 700, multiple devices are interconnected through acentral computing device. The central computing device may be local tothe multiple devices or may be located remotely from the multipledevices. In one embodiment, the central computing device may be a cloudof one or more server computers that are connected to the multipledevices through a network, the Internet, or other data communicationlink. In one embodiment, this interconnection architecture enablesfunctionality to be delivered across multiple devices to provide acommon and seamless experience to a user of the multiple devices. Eachof the multiple devices may have different physical requirements andcapabilities, and the central computing device uses a platform to enablethe delivery of an experience to the device that is both tailored to thedevice and yet common to all devices. In one embodiment, a class oftarget devices is created and experiences are tailored to the genericclass of devices. A class of devices may be defined by physicalfeatures, types of usage, or other common characteristics of thedevices.

In various implementations, the computing device 102 may assume avariety of different configurations, such as for computer 702, mobile704, and television 706 uses. Each of these configurations includesdevices that may have generally different constructs and capabilities,and thus the computing device 102 may be configured according to one ormore of the different device classes. For instance, the computing device102 may be implemented as the computer 702 class of a device thatincludes a personal computer, desktop computer, a multi-screen computer,laptop computer, netbook, and so on.

The computing device 102 may also be implemented as the mobile 704 classof device that includes mobile devices, such as a mobile phone, portablemusic player, portable gaming device, a tablet computer, a multi-screencomputer, and so on. The computing device 102 may also be implemented asthe television 706 class of device that includes devices having orconnected to generally larger screens in casual viewing environments.These devices include televisions, set-top boxes, gaming consoles, andso on. The techniques described herein may be supported by these variousconfigurations of the computing device 102 and are not limited to thespecific examples the techniques described herein. This is illustratedthrough inclusion of the composition system 114 on the computing device102, functionality of which may also be distributed “over the cloud” asfurther detailed below.

The cloud 708 includes and/or is representative of a platform 710 forcontent services 712. The platform 710 abstracts underlyingfunctionality of hardware (e.g., servers) and software resources of thecloud 708. The content services 712 may include applications and/or datathat can be utilized while computer processing is executed on serversthat are remote from the computing device 102. Content services 712 canbe provided as a service over the Internet and/or through a subscribernetwork, such as a cellular or Wi-Fi network.

The platform 710 may abstract resources and functions to connect thecomputing device 102 with other computing devices. The platform 710 mayalso serve to abstract scaling of resources to provide a correspondinglevel of scale to encountered demand for the content services 712 thatare implemented via the platform 710. Accordingly, in an interconnecteddevice embodiment, implementation of functionality of the functionalitydescribed herein may be distributed throughout the system 700. Forexample, the functionality may be implemented in part on the computingdevice 102 as well as via the platform 710 that abstracts thefunctionality of the cloud 708.

FIG. 8 illustrates various components of an example device 800 that canbe implemented as any type of computing device as described withreference to FIGS. 1, 2, and 7 to implement embodiments of thetechniques described herein. Device 800 includes communication devices802 that enable wired and/or wireless communication of device data 804(e.g., received data, data that is being received, data scheduled forbroadcast, data packets of the data, etc.). The device data 804 or otherdevice content can include configuration settings of the device, mediacontent stored on the device, and/or information associated with a userof the device. Media content stored on device 800 can include any typeof audio, video, and/or image data. Device 800 includes one or more datainputs 806 via which any type of data, media content, and/or inputs canbe received, such as user-selectable inputs, messages, music, televisionmedia content, recorded video content, and any other type of audio,video, and/or image data received from any content and/or data source.

Device 800 also includes communication interfaces 808 that can beimplemented as any one or more of a serial and/or parallel interface, awireless interface, any type of network interface, a modem, and as anyother type of communication interface. The communication interfaces 808provide a connection and/or communication links between device 800 and acommunication network by which other electronic, computing, andcommunication devices communicate data with device 800.

Device 800 includes one or more processors 810 (e.g., any ofmicroprocessors, controllers, and the like) which process variouscomputer-executable instructions to control the operation of device 800and to implement embodiments of the techniques described herein.Alternatively or in addition, device 800 can be implemented with any oneor combination of hardware, firmware, or fixed logic circuitry that isimplemented in connection with processing and control circuits which aregenerally identified at 812. Although not shown, device 800 can includea system bus or data transfer system that couples the various componentswithin the device. A system bus can include any one or combination ofdifferent bus structures, such as a memory bus or memory controller, aperipheral bus, a universal serial bus, and/or a processor or local busthat utilizes any of a variety of bus architectures.

Device 800 also includes computer-readable media 814, such as one ormore memory components, examples of which include random access memory(RAM), non-volatile memory (e.g., any one or more of a read-only memory(ROM), flash memory, EPROM, EEPROM, etc.), and a disk storage device. Adisk storage device may be implemented as any type of magnetic oroptical storage device, such as a hard disk drive, a recordable and/orrewriteable compact disc (CD), any type of a digital versatile disc(DVD), and the like. Device 800 can also include a mass storage mediadevice 816.

Computer-readable media 814 provides data storage mechanisms to storethe device data 804, as well as various device applications 818 and anyother types of information and/or data related to operational aspects ofdevice 800. For example, an operating system 820 can be maintained as acomputer application with the computer-readable media 814 and executedon processors 810. The device applications 818 can include a devicemanager (e.g., a control application, software application, signalprocessing and control module, code that is native to a particulardevice, a hardware abstraction layer for a particular device, etc.). Thedevice applications 818 also include any system components or modules toimplement embodiments of the techniques described herein. In thisexample, the device applications 818 include an interface application822 and an input/output module 824 that are shown as software modulesand/or computer applications. The input/output module 824 isrepresentative of software that is used to provide an interface with adevice configured to capture inputs, such as a touchscreen, track pad,camera, microphone, and so on. Alternatively or in addition, theinterface application 822 and the input/output module 824 can beimplemented as hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof.Additionally, the input/output module 824 may be configured to supportmultiple input devices, such as separate devices to capture visual andaudio inputs, respectively.

Device 800 also includes an audio and/or video input-output system 826that provides audio data to an audio system 828 and/or provides videodata to a display system 830. The audio system 828 and/or the displaysystem 830 can include any devices that process, display, and/orotherwise render audio, video, and image data. Video signals and audiosignals can be communicated from device 800 to an audio device and/or toa display device via an RF (radio frequency) link, S-video link,composite video link, component video link, DVI (digital videointerface), analog audio connection, or other similar communicationlink. In an embodiment, the audio system 828 and/or the display system830 are implemented as external components to device 800. Alternatively,the audio system 828 and/or the display system 830 are implemented asintegrated components of example device 800.

CONCLUSION

Although the invention has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the invention defined in the appended claims is not necessarilylimited to the specific features or acts described. Rather, the specificfeatures and acts are disclosed as example forms of implementing theclaimed invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method implemented by a computing device, themethod comprising: exposing virtual surface functionality and hidingatlasing functionality while exposing, via application programminginterfaces, methods for updating visuals by an operating system foraccess by one or more applications of the computing device; creating avirtual surface in response to a request from the one or moreapplications to be used to render visuals for display by a displaydevice, the virtual surface allocated in memory of the computing deviceby the exposed virtual surface functionality to have an area that islarger than an area to be used to display the visuals from the one ormore applications; and decreasing, via the exposed atlasingfunctionality, a number of surfaces created for the one or moreapplications to be used to render the visuals for display by the displaydevice.
 2. A method as described in claim 1, wherein: the virtualsurface is configured for access by a plurality of said applications;and the virtual surface functionality includes an ability to specify anarea of the virtual surface to be used by respective said application torender a visual in which that area is configured to restrict anothersaid application from accessing the area to render visuals.
 3. A methodas described in claim 1, wherein the virtual surface is comprised of aplurality of logical surfaces, each being representative of individualsurfaces including respective one or more visuals as specified by theone or more applications.
 4. A method as described in claim 3, whereinthe plurality of logical surfaces have a fixed size and are arranged ina fixed grid.
 5. A method as described in claim 3, wherein the virtualsurface functionality includes functionality to create, update, anddelete the logical surfaces.
 6. A method as described in claim 1,wherein the exposed virtual surface functionality includes functionalityto break a surface of visual data received from the one or moreapplications into logical surfaces.
 7. A method as described in claim 1,wherein the exposed virtual surface functionality includes functionalityto render one or more of the logical surfaces before a request isreceived to display the one or more logical surfaces.
 8. A method asdescribed in claim 1, wherein the virtual surface, when initiallycreated, is not backed by actual allocations from the one or moreapplications.
 9. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the areaspecified by the application is to render a texture.
 10. A computingdevice comprising one or more modules implemented at least partially inhardware and configured to perform operations comprising: exposingvirtual surface functionality and atlasing functionality by an operatingsystem for access by a plurality of applications of the computingdevice; creating a virtual surface, which, when initially created, isnot backed by actual allocations from the one or more applications, inresponse to a request from one or more of the plurality of applicationsto be used to render visuals for display by a display device, thevirtual surface allocated in memory of the computing device by theexposed virtual surface functionality to have an area that is largerthan an area to be used to display the visuals from the one or moreapplications, the virtual surface functionality further includes anability to specify an area of the virtual surface to be used byrespective said application to render a visual in which that area isconfigured to restrict another said application from accessing the areato render visuals; determining from the request whether the visuals areassociated with a swap chain or an atlas surface and using a same visualtree to support the swap chain and the atlas surface; and decreasing,via the exposed atlasing functionality, a number of surfaces created forthe plurality of applications to be used to render the visuals fordisplay by the display device.
 11. A computing device as described inclaim 10, wherein the virtual surface is comprised of a plurality oflogical surfaces, each being representative of individual surfacesincluding respective one or more visuals as specified by the pluralityof applications.
 12. A computing device as described in claim 11,wherein the plurality of logical surfaces have a fixed size and arearranged in a fixed grid.
 13. A computing device as described in claim11, wherein the virtual surface functionality includes functionality tocreate the logical surfaces.
 14. A computing device as described inclaim 10, wherein the exposed virtual surface functionality includesfunctionality to break a surface of visual data received from theplurality of applications into logical surfaces.
 15. A computing deviceas described in claim 10, wherein the exposed virtual surfacefunctionality includes functionality to render one or more of thelogical surfaces before a request is received to display the one or morelogical surfaces.
 16. A computing device as described in claim 10,wherein the area specified by the application is to render a texture.17. A computing device as described in claim 10 wherein the atlasingfunctionality is hidden from the plurality of applications.
 18. Acomputing device comprising one or more modules implemented at leastpartially in hardware and configured to perform operations comprising:exposing virtual surface functionality and hiding atlasing functionalitywhile exposing, via application programming interfaces, methods forupdating visuals by an operating system for access by one or moreapplications of the computing device; creating a virtual surface inresponse to a request from the one or more applications to be used torender visuals for display by a display device, the virtual surfaceallocated in memory of the computing device by the exposed virtualsurface functionality to have an area that is larger than an area to beused to display the visuals from the one or more applications; anddecreasing, via the exposed atlasing functionality, a number of surfacescreated for the one or more applications to be used to render thevisuals for display by the display device.
 19. A computing device asdescribed in claim 18, wherein: the virtual surface is configured foraccess by a plurality of said applications; and the virtual surfacefunctionality includes an ability to specify an area of the virtualsurface to be used by respective said application to render a visual inwhich that area is configured to restrict another said application fromaccessing the area to render visuals.
 20. A computing device asdescribed in claim 18, wherein the virtual surface is comprised of aplurality of logical surfaces, each being representative of individualsurfaces including respective one or more visuals as specified by theone or more applications.